This position is a three-month contract position, with the possibility of becoming a longer-term relationship with Undead Labs. For more information about what it’s like to work at the Lab, check out our jobs page.

It this all sounds awesome, and you think you have what it takes, send your resume and any samples you can share to jobs@undeadlabs.com.

Hello fellow survivors. (It’s been a long time since I last typed that…)

It’s traditional to close out the year with the phrase, “Happy new year!” Usually we say that speculatively, as in, “Boy I sure do hope we have a happy year next year!” But sometimes we might have a reason to actually believe it will be a happy year next year. For those of us here at Undead Labs, we’re looking at a ton of hard work next year (multiple metric tons of tons, more realistically), some late-night panics, a few “oh my god oh my god” meetings, a sprinkling of bug-count out-to-the-woodshed sessions courtesy of our QA team, and some assorted last-minute design or tech change freak outs. And all that can mean only one thing: we’re driving toward the release of State of Decay 2 next year, and that will make it a very happy year indeed.

Just a few short moments ago at the Xbox E3 2016 Briefing in Los Angeles, we announced State of Decay 2 to the world.

It’s been a few years since we announced our partnership with Microsoft Studios to start building the future of State of Decay, and we’re thrilled (and a little relieved) to finally be able to talk about it. As a full sequel with much higher ambitions, we had to wait until development was far enough along to speak confidently about what the game will be when it gets into your hands (or maybe, on your hard drive). We’re a development team that enjoys direct, regular interaction with fans of our games, so it’s been hard for us to stay silent about something we’re so excited about, but as of today we can finally tell you that it’s coming.

During that time we’ve had the opportunity to see and hear what millions of you enjoyed about State of Decay. Through Twitch streams, to Twitter, the always-passionate Steam forums, in our own community forums, and — perhaps most of all — through meeting so many of you in person at game conventions and fan events, we’ve heard you clearly. We’ve considered many paths for State of Decay over the past few years, but the overwhelming majority of you said you wanted a bigger, badder, bolder, smoother State of Decay that you could play with your friends.

And so that’s exactly what we’re making.

State of Decay 2 builds upon the unique blend of open-world exploration, third-person action, and survival-fantasy role playing we pioneered in the original State of Decay, and then adds drop-in cooperative multiplayer. The world of State of Decay 2 is larger, more dangerous, and more unpredictable than ever, so if you choose, you can put your survival plan to the test with up to three other players.

As you know, Moonrise has been in beta on Steam in the Early Access channel for the past few months. At the same time, the iOS version of the game has been available in limited release, in countries including Australia and Canada. During this beta period we’ve been gathering data on how people play the game. The free-to-play model, and the mobile market, are new territory for Undead Labs, so we’ve been paying close attention to these numbers to make sure we’re making a game people are excited to play, and also a game that we can operate profitably and sustainably with the level of support you expect.

What we’ve found is that while some people really love Moonrise, there were unfortunately many more people who played the game and then moved on after a few days. For a standalone, offline game that might be fine; but for an online game with significant server hosting costs and an expectation for ongoing development and new content, it can mean a game that not only doesn’t pay for it’s development costs, but might even cost money to operate. As you can imagine, that’s not something that makes sense for an independent studio like Undead Labs, nor for that matter would it be a good business decision even for a large publisher.

On this very day two years ago, several hundred thousand of you took a chance and bought a little Xbox Live Arcade game named State of Decay. You had no idea who made it, or what it was all about, but you clearly loved survival-fantasy games and had a true gamer’s appetite for innovation and new gaming experiences. You may not have known that most of the development team behind the game — the artists, programmers, designers, musicians, animators, testers, and producers at Undead Labs — had been awake all night, waiting to see how you would react to a game that didn’t follow any established templates, and even broke fundamental design rules with mechanics like permadeath.

And, much to our joy (and, yeah, relief), the vast majority of you loved it. And told your friends. And streamed it on Twitch. And posted videos to YouTube. And tweeted about it. And over the next few months, State of Decay became the fastest-selling original* game of all time on Xbox Live Arcade, and went on to sell millions of copies on Xbox 360, Steam, and Xbox One.

And you know, two years later on, as we work on Big Things for the future of State of Decay, it’s a good time for all of us at Undead Labs and Microsoft to take a deep breath and reflect on exactly why we’re here, and why we have the opportunity to work on Big Things. I know it’s cliche to thank your customers, and sometimes it’s kind of like your mom saying “I love you” — she probably says it every day and you kind of start taking it for granted. But man, she means it from her heart. And so do we. Thank you for getting us here. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to keep working on Big Things. And thank you for being the kind of gamers who will take a chance on innovation.